Now he had caught Higgins up, and was pressing the frail human body against his massive chest. There may have been an instant when Higgins screamed and struggled. But if there was, it was soon over. The mangled thing became quiet.
Toory found himself on the highway that passed along at the foot of the hill. Beyond the steeply-rising, ragged cliff was dark against the sky, and a light was suddenly bathing Toory as he stood irresolute in the road with his burden—the headlights of an oncoming autocar. It ground to a stop, and men leaped out and stood gasping.
"It's Doret's new model. It has killed a man!"
Another car came along and the distress sirens of both cars started wailing. Then a police car arrived; and still Toory stood confused and trembling, grasping the thing that had been a man. It was terribly frightening, because so many new thoughts seemed to be needed to make sense of the confusion.
Now he could hear the men. "Don't try to give it orders, it might leap at us!"
And a voice from back at the garden. "Here's Babs Doret. It must have killed her too!"
No—no. That was wrong. Surely he had not hurt Miss Babs. He saw them up in the garden, bending over her. Somebody shouted, "She's fainted!"
He didn't want anyone to hurt Miss Babs. He would not permit anyone to hurt her, because he had a permanent-order to protect her.
The humans were all babbling. "If we could get the fuse out of it—"
"It's up in the center of the back, up at the shoulders, isn't it?"